Regional alliances against global threats

Saadet OruçBY: SAADET ORUÇ*

The recent visit paid by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım to Baghdad and Irbil marked an important momentum shift regarding a common response by regional actors to global threats.

Moreover, the ongoing initiative by Turkey and Russia for a solution to the Syrian crisis has emphasized the importance of the functioning of regional sensitivities.

In the global order, terrorism has become one of the leading threats against stability and Turkey’s neighborhood has become the playground of global terrorism sponsored and sheltered by global actors. Using the Middle Eastern countries as an experimental garden to grow their “poisonous flowers of evil,” regional powers permitted these countries to become the main target of terrorist organizations, namely Daesh and in particular the PKK and its Syrian offshoot the Democratic Union Party (PYD). With this new momentum, it is becoming more obvious that regional threats can only be overthrown by regional alliances.

The possibility of the creation of an independent Kurdish state is one of the leading goals of the Western powers, and it is the leading common concern of all the regional powers, except Israel.

Turkey, which has been left alone in its struggle against terrorism, not only inside the country, but also abroad, including Syria and Europe, has all the legitimacy it needs to seek new fronts.

And accordingly, the Turkish military has been conducting the counterterror offensive against Daesh and other terror organizations in the region.

Iran, Syria and Turkey formed a trilateral mechanism at the beginning of the 1990s. A similar initiative could be the perfect formula to eliminate this possibility. Of course, by replacing Syria with Baghdad.

Also, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq can be defined as a natural partner on this front, in an aim to provide anti-terror approaches for the stability of its neighborhood, taking the principal into account that Kurdish people in the region cannot be represented by terrorist factions, which is the leading injustice for the Kurds. The future of the Kurds in the region is in brotherhood and stability, not in the artificial geographic and ethnic operations of the hegemonic powers.

A crucial point that must bee pointed out is that for years, those who left Turkey alone in its fight against terror and continue to do so, are the above-mentioned Western hegemonic powers. That is why they have focused on the Kurdish issue in Syria, Iraq and particularly in Turkey.

Turkish civilians including women, children and the elderly and security officers have been killed in hundreds of terror attacks by the PKK terror organization since 1980s. Reportedly, the hegemonic Western powers were/are the ones that ignore Turkey’s struggle for peace in the region and supplied weapons, food and health care to the PKK. (Here, I don’t even mention their media’s terror supportive news articles, broadcasting or publications). Unfortunately they had called themselves Turkey’s “ally.” The meanings of terms are all jumbled. So, who was the enemy then?

Hopefully, today’s Turkey is not the same Turkey in past years and its president, with the people’s support, is fully aware of the ongoing global scenarios within its borders. That is why Turkey has been reshaping its position in the world.

Analyzing the current balance change of Turkey in line with Turkey’s awareness is the most concrete way, and finally, saying that Turkey is making conjunctural changes in the region as the West enters the axis shift period would be quite logical.

*SAADET ORUÇ is a Turkish journalist. She writes columns for Daily Sabah Turkish newspaper

(Published in Daily Sabah on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017)